Movie Review: Detroit

30Jan

(9/10) – My Rating

Detroit: Director Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty”) tells a tragic, thrilling, and true story about racism, brutality, and survival. It is sad what human beings can do to each other, and that a story set in the 60’s can show many parallels to today. The story follows a few different groups of people who all end up staying in the same hotel during an outbreak of riots. Due to poor decisions, officers and soldiers show up to the hotel thinking there is an active shooter in the building. The tension continues to rise when a racist cop is put in charge of the investigation.

http://leonardmaltin.com/detroit-offers-hindsight-but-little-insight/

The film has one of the best ensembles of the year. John Boyega, Jack Reynor, Anthony Mackie, and the rest of the cast all give top tier performances. However, the breakout role belongs to Will Poulter (“The Revenant”) who plays the lead investigator. He does an excellent job of being absolutely terrifying and pure evil. There is no sense of rational thinking in his character just hatred.

The movie is not flawless though. It does take some time for the story to get moving. Then the ending doesn’t quite show the same efforts that were put into earlier parts of the film. The cinematography wasn’t flawless either. The decisions to go with a shaky look was most likely to give audiences the feel of a documentary, but it just felt jarring. Overall though, the movie is well done.